Monday, January 25, 2010

Bokeh in a photographic context means out of focus areas in a photograph.

The result is that one part of the photograph is clear and sharp and otherusually less important areas are blurred. Faces and flowers are good subjects for this treatment.

Bokkeh effects on natural photographs are achieved by adjusting lens aperture or using a telephoto lens. Bokeh images can also be produced by using a mask on the lens, or manipulating the image digitally.

An example of a flower taken with a telephoto zoom lens. Standing close to the subject and zooming in (keeping aperture open to the max in this case f4) brings the subject into sharp focus and blurring the background.

The original Japanese verb “bokeru” (惚ける) has two meanings: (1) to grow senile, dull or forgetful in one’s thinking and (2) out of focus as in a blurred photograph.

Thursday, January 7, 2010

Directions

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People pointing, indicating, demonstrating, signaling, and showing…. Pictures of people pointing often don’t show the object being pointed at; it’s out of the picture. But we can guess roughly what it might be…. Sometimes.

This photograph is not only a study of a guide guiding and tourists touring, but also a frozen moment to kindle our curiosity about “What could it be?”

The elderly gazers’ expressions, the younger guide’s turned head and outstretched arm, assisted by the angled crutch, pull attention out of the left side of the picture, and provoke guessing, speculation, and conjecture about the out-of-picture object that the tourists are being told is important.